‘Passionate conversations’ in schools are a good thing

No doubt it’s more efficient to run a school without any disruption, complaint or controversy.

But does an absence of challenges, conflicts or intellectual collisions automatically make a school better? Make teaching more effective? Learning any more likely to occur?

James Yoakley, an 11th-grade English teacher at Lenoir City High School in eastern Tennessee, was transferred recently to Lenoir City Middle to teach 8th-grade English — in a move that Superintendent Wayne Miller said was “for more efficient operation of the school.”

Yoakley was chair of the high school’s English department and faculty supervisor of the high school’s newspaper and yearbook for the past six years. His “efficient” transfer follows two controversies in the past school year involving LCHS student publications.

In February, officials would not allow the high school paper to publish an article by the editor, a senior, on what it was like to be an atheist in a school where most students are Christian. The article also accused administrators, teachers and coaches of promoting Christian beliefs, noting the practice of conducting Christian prayers before school board meetings and student events.

In early May, some parents and others complained about a high school yearbook article in which a male senior student discussed being gay in Lenoir City.

Yoakley was informed of the transfer just before the Memorial Day weekend. The reassignment was “designed to appease a small, but vocal, group of voters,” he told the Student Press Law Center in a May 29 article.

The two incidents provoked months of community and national debate — and complaints. Knoxvillenews.com said some have called for “a criminal investigation into Yoakley’s influence on his students,” and for prosecution on child sex-abuse charges of any teacher who talks with students about their sexual orientation.

Yoakley has defended the articles, telling Knoxvillenews.com that he tried to allow students “to make their own decisions about what should be published and which issues are important to the other students.” He told the newspaper he was “proud of the work his students have done this year.”

After newspapers and websites nationwide published the article banned from the student newspaper, the school board agreed to end prayers before school board meetings and football games. An online group, “Take A Stand Against The Ignorance In Lenoir City” on Facebook, has formed to encourage more tolerance by the school district.

Yoakley’s experience is typical of what Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said was a combination of a “gradual erosion of student free expression rights” and “more aggression on the part of school officials.”

The federal courts have abdicated their protective role in terms of student speech, LoMonte said, sending a “message that administrators pretty much can get away with anything when it comes to student free expression.”
Superintendent Miller said in February that topics of sexuality, politics and religion generally were to be avoided in Lenoir student publications because they might inspire disruptive “passionate conversations.”

That’s bad? Freedom of speech and of the press can be defined as an unending series of “passionate conversations” — between citizens, between the governed and those elected to govern, and between those who would preserve the status quo and those who would assemble and petition for change.

Schools should be test labs for our core freedoms. They should be places that encourage the exploration of free expression and an understanding that religious liberty means government may not favor or disfavor any particular faith, even one that locally is in the majority.

Yes, at times that core-freedoms lab may make schools run less “efficiently” than some might like. Discussions by students might make parents uncomfortable. They might prompt community dialogue on long-held practices. They might provoke difficult conversations with those adults — or bloc of voters — who would control, quiet or censor the outspoken.

But effective First Amendment education that prepares our younger citizens to fully participate requires both lessons in the classroom and leadership by example in the schoolhouse. Leadership by example — now, that would be “efficient.”

The First Amendment Center is an educational organization and cannot provide legal advice.

Ken Paulson is president of the First Amendment Center and dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also the former editor-in-chief of USA Today.

Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute, also is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center, a center of the institute. He is a veteran journalist whose career has included work in newspapers, radio, television and online.

John Seigenthaler founded the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment rights and values.

About The First Amendment Center

We support the First Amendment and build understanding of its core freedoms through education, information and entertainment.

The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government.

Founded by John Seigenthaler, the First Amendment Center is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is associated with the Newseum and the Diversity Institute. The center has offices in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The center’s website, www.firstamendmentcenter.org, is one of the most authoritative sources of news, information and commentary in the nation on First Amendment issues. It features daily updates on news about First Amendment-related developments, as well as detailed reports about U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the First Amendment, and commentary, analysis and special reports on free expression, press freedom and religious-liberty issues. Support the work of the First Amendment Center.

1 For All

1 for All is a national nonpartisan program designed to build understanding and support for First Amendment freedoms. 1 for All provides teaching materials to the nation’s schools, supports educational events on America’s campuses and reminds the public that the First Amendment serves everyone, regardless of faith, race, gender or political leanings. It is truly one amendment for all. Visit 1 for All at http://1forall.us/

Help tomorrow’s citizens find their voice: Teach the First Amendment

The most basic liberties guaranteed to Americans – embodied in the 45 words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – assure Americans a government that is responsible to its citizens and responsive to their wishes.

These 45 words are as alive and important today as they were more than 200 years ago. These liberties are neither liberal nor conservative, Democratic nor Republican – they are the basis for our representative democratic form of government.

We know from studies beginning in 1997 by the nonpartisan First Amendment Center, and from studies commissioned by the Knight Foundation and others, that few adult Americans or high school students can name the individual five freedoms that make up the First Amendment.

The lesson plans – drawn from materials prepared by the Newseum and the First Amendment Center – will draw young people into an exploration of how their freedoms began and how they operate in today’s world. Students will discuss just how far individual rights extend, examining rights in the school environment and public places. The lessons may be used in history and government, civics, language arts and journalism, art and debate classes. They may be used in sections or in their entirety. Many of these lesson plans indicate an overall goal, offer suggestions on how to teach the lesson and list additional resources and enrichment activities.

First Amendment Moot Court Competition

This site no longer is being updated … And the competition itself is moving to Washington, D.C., where the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center is co-sponsoring the “Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition,” March 18-19, in partnership with the Columbus School of Law, of the Catholic University of America.

During the two-day competition in February, each team will participate in a minimum of four rounds, arguing a hypothetical based on a current First Amendment controversy before panels of accomplished jurists, legal scholars and attorneys.

FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER ARCHIVES

State of the First Amendment survey reports

The State of the First Amendment surveys, commissioned since 1997 by the First Amendment Center and Newseum, are a regular check on how Americans view their first freedoms of speech, press, assembly, religion and petition.

The periodic surveys examine public attitudes toward freedom of speech, press, religion and the rights of assembly and petition; and sample public opinion on contemporary issues involving those freedoms.
See the reports.